April 30, 2009
Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary
U. S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue SW
Washington D. C. 20585
Dear Dr. Chu:
I am writing in connection with the President’s recent remarks at the National Academy of
Sciences annual meeting as posted on the Department of Energy’s Web site home page. In
connection therewith please find the enclosed copy of my April 28, 2009 letter to President
Obama and the Exhibit “A” as referenced therein.
Please read page three of this letter in detail. Given the President’s commitment to the
sciences and education, a revisit of President Carter’s enactment of the Magnetic Fusion
Engineering Act (MFEEA) of 1980 is in order. For what ever reasons, this Act was never
properly funded, yet there is no single scientific and technical project which is potentially more
important to the American people….indeed the world….than the development of an
inexpensive, unlimited, and inexhaustible source of energy for eternity.
As you know, California is home to the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Labs.
After a recent tour by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of this facility, he told a KPIX Channel 5
(CBS, San Francisco) reporter that the potential of fusion energy was “mind boggling.”
Needless to say, California will play a leading effort in this development. However, the spirit and
intent of the MFEEA is to commercialize controlled fusion as an energy source without regard
for any specific containment technique; i.e., magnetic, inertial, dual mirror, and others we may
have not yet thought of. We must aggressively explore all potential solutions now.
As President Kennedy challenged us to land a man on the moon and return him alive to Earth in
less than 10 years, let’s look forward to meeting the challenge the world’s need for energy,
potable distributed water, and a clean atmosphere, will place upon us over the next 20 years.
We must begin now.
Sincerely,
Tom D. Tamarkin
President & CEO
CC: Honorable Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Arnold
Schwarzenegger